Review: Marvel Knights Spider-Man # 3 (of 5)

by C Reyes

First at a haunted house, then in a plane, now… A SUBMARINE? these are some of the places that Spider-Man is being dragged around while fighting 99 of his greatest adversaries in the process. I must first admit that I am no fan of Peter Parker, the whole Spider-Man franchise doesn’t even register on my top 10 hell, there are even times where I wished that they would have offed Spider-Man for good (that’s how much I dislike the character) but just because I cannot stand a character does not mean that I’m not open minded to the possibility of coming across a legitimately good story wherever the source of the tale may be. that’s where this book comes in. To put everything in a nutshell, on this issue we see more of Peter trying to get through all the madness without losing it himself. A fair amount of his rogues make an appearance such as Carnage, Venom, Scarecrow (NOT DC, I know what you’re thinking) and even Tombstone, but the more Peter fights them the more things start to unravel within the chaos. He starts to notice that although this was an elaborate trap made for him it seems as if the villains were also dragged into a plan that they did not want to be a part of. One can tell the only way to get to the bottom of the situation is to push through the entire trip. Although what truly caught me by surprise was the cliffhanger where we see the explosive appearance of an old villain whom you can question if he is a Spider-man villain, or a foe to the entire Marvel Universe.

Writer Matt Kindt and Artist Marco Rudy are truly pushing the boundaries on this reality bending, perception challenging gem of a story. One thing among bloggers that can be considered an “unspoken” rule to an extent is criticizing another’s work in the platform, but week in and week out I have noticed other reviewers on other sites bash this book for 2 reasons, reasons I would like to address.

1) I look around and listen to all the nay-sayers stating that the art on this book is “sub-par” to the other spidey titles and because of its incoherence the story becomes “hard to follow” thus discouraging the reader from seeing the book through. To those people I say come on! open your eyes and realize that the art is befitting of the story, you don’t see your Copiel’s, your Stegman’s, or your Cheung’s jumping at the foot of the cannon willing to tackle this monster of a story. This book got the perfect man for the job. the whole premise of the story is to see Spider-Man tackle almost all of his foes while wounded and on drugs (will address that next) so in order to understand and sympathize with Peter’s condition we need to see the story through his eyes, and that’s what Marco Rudy was able to successfully bring to the table.

2) I am an understanding fella (sort of) and I can see where people would be against the idea of Peter Parker on drugs, not to endorse drugs or anything of the sort I do endorse one thing, and that’s making the reader think. Because when one dares to stand up and ask “why” or in this case “why not”, a world of opportunity will open up to the beholder. For example on this issue Peter was narrating about how he once had to photograph a world war 2 vet for an article in the bugle, Peter would recall him talking about what it felt like when he was injured while going through a similar scenario himself, if that’s not an underlined theme then I don’t know what is.

In the end this book is serving the imprint’s purpose to innovate and challenge the storytelling norm, and above all else that’s what I truly believe this business is all about. Lastly I would like to congratulate the creative team for turning this Spidey atheist into a believer.

An aspiring comic book writer working towards a degree in public relations (as a back up of course) love this business with every fiber of my being, which is why I tend to be very critic of it. I've grown fond of the creative process as well as the ins-and-outs of this business that at times I tend to pay more attention as to why a creative team decided to place a character/story line on a certain direction rather than the actual book itself. I am also a firm believer of hidden motives to every story, every angle and every business decision that has been made in our beloved industry.
To put it in short I'm a writer, a theorist, and a student of the game. Always willing and able to learn anytime and every time I can.